1. Field of the Invention
An aspect of the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as printer, copier, and multi-operation apparatus. More particularly, an aspect of the present invention relates to a structurally improved paper supply unit and an image forming apparatus having the same installed therein.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image forming apparatuses generally include a paper supply unit, in which a plurality of paper sheets is stacked, to supply the paper sheets to an engine unit. The paper supply unit may be a cassette type, which is detachably mounted to a main body of the image forming apparatus, and a tray type, which is opened and closed in a pivoting manner with respect to the main body of the image forming apparatus.
The tray-type paper supply unit is usually adopted in a small-size image forming apparatus. FIGS. 1 and 2 show an example of the tray-type paper supply unit.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, an image forming apparatus 10 comprises a front cover 11 to allow an opening and closing of a front thereof. As shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of paper sheets may be stacked in the front cover 11 when the front cover 11 is opened. Also, a rear-end guide 12 is slidably mounted to the front cover 11 to arrange rear ends of the paper sheets. A tray cover 13 is detachably mounted above the front cover 11 to prevent the stacked paper from being contaminated by dust or foreign substances.
The tray cover 13 is to be disposed over the front cover 11 when the image forming apparatus 10 is in use. However, when the image forming apparatus 10 is not in use or is being stored, the tray cover 13 may be detached, as shown in FIG. 2, to be separately stored. In this case, the tray cover 13 could be lost and, as a result, when the image forming apparatus 10 is used without the tray cover 13 mounted, dust or foreign substances may flow in and generate a malfunction of the image forming apparatus 10.